


Reveal Thyself

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Death, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Henry's curse, Implied relationship to be, Rebirth, Reveal, Truth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-23 02:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2531291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry dies.</p>
<p>The difference is, this time he dies in front of Jo Martinez.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reveal Thyself

**Author's Note:**

> I've been agonizing over the fact that she still doesn't know, so I wrote some fanfic. This is set in the future from where the show is now.
> 
> I do not own _Forever_. Thanks for reading!

Henry had lived through a lot in his time. Living forever tended to do that, gave you a lot of time and experience to witness things, both good and bad. Henry had experienced war, and loss, and love. He had experienced life, and death - a number of times. The latter he wasn't too keen on witnessing again, having just gone through another painful death. This one was made infinitely worse by the fact that the jig was finally up; he had, officially, died in the presence of NYPD. Most namely, Jo Martinez.

"What am I supposed to tell her?" Henry pushed his fingers through his hair. "I mean... _right in front of her_ , Abe!"

"What did you say it was this time? You get shot again?"

"Yeah, like that's new, but stay on subject!"

Abe held up his hands. "Just asking." He turned back to the kettle. "What's the big deal? You've told people before."

"What's the- _what's the big deal?_ " Henry paced the length of the kitchen. "I don't want to move on, Abe, I like it here, I have a life here, _we_ have a life here." He turned to pace back. "And yes, I've told people before, a few _select_ people, but everything always _changes_ when I admit that I can't _actually_ die!"

"Would you sit down?" Abe replied. "You're making me nervous."

"Ugh." Henry threw himself into a chair. "This is exactly what I have been hoping to avoid from the very _beginning_. I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved. I knew it."

"You knew that this was bound to happen." Abe set a mug of tea in front of him.

"Because _that_ makes me feel better," Henry muttered, picking up the mug.

Abe leaned over, bracing his hands on the table. "Look. You like this girl, right?"

Henry paused with the mug pressed against his lips, shooting a look at the antiques dealer.

"You think I know what's going on with you all the time? I'm just asking."

Henry took a sip of his tea. "You already know the answer to that," he replied shortly.

"Then, _tell her_."

"Are you trying to talk to me like I'm your son?" Henry asked, raising his eyebrows. "Isn't that a reversal of roles?"

Abe rolled his eyes. "Just do it, Henry. You know you have to. You have to do it or take off, and I, for one, like this place. The question is, how much do _you_ like it?"

Henry sighed heavily, breathing in the steam from his tea. "It's not that simple, Abe."

The bell rang from the front of the shop. Abe looked towards the door and then back at Henry. "If she's the only one who saw you die, I really don't see how it isn't. But that's up to you. _You_ have to decide. Coming!" he yelled through the door. "Figure it out," he added sternly, and then left the room.

Henry resisted the urge to sigh again. The tea wasn't helping to calm his nerves. Abe's advice definitely wasn't helping. He took another gulp of his tea and got to his feet. He decided that a walk in the brisk winter air would help to clear his head. Nevermind that he'd been shot two days prior, he was determined to go out. He'd spent the first day after he had hauled his freezing body out of the freezing river recuperating from the aftereffects of the gunshot. The second day, he had ended up battling a cold from being in said freezing water, but thanks to cold medication and sleeping aids, he had more or less slept it away. Now, he had returned to his usual self, and was determined to spend most of his day agonizing over what had happened. So far, his week wasn't the best one.

Henry left the kitchen and strode into the antique shopfront. He would grab his coat and make his excuses to Abe. He just needed his own time to figure this out, as Abe had told him to do.

"I don't understand it, Abraham, I mean, he was there, he didn't have a pulse-"

Henry had crossed the room halfway to his jacket, too wrapped up in his own thoughts, before he recognized the voice. The voice which trailed off after he had walked in the room, and now Henry could feel eyes on his head. Jo.

He wasn't going to get that walk to make his decision, after all.

Henry raised his head slowly, seeking out her Jo's eyes last. He hoped that he looked suitingly guilty enough; he felt it. He should have told her, he should have told her a long time ago, he shouldn't have ever started assisting her, he should have just kept his distance. And now, here they were, when he was supposed to be dead again and Jo was, basically, staring at a ghost.

She _looked_ like she was seeing a ghost.

Henry smiled wryly. "Detective."

Jo just gaped at him. Abe rolled his eyes and threw up his hands in a _well, now she knows_ manner. Henry wanted to glare at him, but he couldn't draw up the enthusiam.

"I didn't expect you," he admitted, looking back at his partner. Ex-partner. ... Still partner?

"You..." Jo trailed off. "You didn't..." She cleared her throat. "You didn't expect me." She took a step forward. "You didn't expect _me_?"

Henry pressed his lips together, abandoning the smile. "Perhaps it should be the other way around, I understand, but..."

"You were _dead_!"

Henry could have argued. He could have said that he wasn't. He could have said that he just up and walked away after taking five gunshots to the chest. He probably could have swung it. Somehow.

But he didn't. He just clasped his hands together and looked back at her evenly.

"You were dead, I was there, you didn't have a pulse, you weren't breathing, and then I took my sight off of you for _two minutes_ and I turn around your body was gone. You were _dead_ , Henry."

"I'm not dead," Henry replied simply.

Jo had progressed onto him at this point, and he was all prepared to be either slapped or punched or arrested or carted off to a hospital. Any of those reactions were perfectly logical for someone who you thought was dead. Instead, he was surprised when Jo pulled him into a hug that nearly cracked his ribs.

"You _asshole_ ," Jo muttered.

Henry brought his arms up to hug her back. "I deserve that."

"You could have _called_. I've been thinking I was going crazy, your body disappearing like that, and then I couldn't reach you and Abe wasn't talking, I thought I was going crazy and you really were dead."

"I was," Henry admitted, somewhat begrudgingly.

Jo pulled away slightly. "If you were dead, how are you here? I must have... made a stupid mistake, I don't know."

Henry shook his head. "You didn't. I was dead..." he paused. He could lie. He could lie and run and get out of this place, but he was _so_ tired of running. He pushed ahead. "But I came back."

Jo looked at him like he was crazy. Or that maybe she was crazy herself. Henry could understand both of those feelings. "What?" she asked.

"I was dead, and I came back to life."

The words hit the air and settled into the stillness that followed. Henry found himself properly nervous for the first time in ages. For the first time in ages, he was vulnerable for his curse.

Jo was still staring at him like he was crazy.

Henry took a deep breath. "I think, Detective, that it's time for the truth."

　

 

"Why water?"

Henry raised his eyebrows. "The entire story, and the one thing you ask is ‘why water’?"

Jo shrugged. "I mean, it's all impossible but it happened anyway, so either we're both crazy or this is some messed up dream, so why not ‘why water’?

Henry laughed softly despite himself. "I don't know, but it probably has something to do with the original circumstances of my death."

"Huh." Jo reached for the whiskey bottle. "Why are you always naked?"

"I couldn't begin to guess, Detective." He held out his glass for Jo to refill. She rolled her eyes but topped it off. Maybe there was hope yet.

 


End file.
